Преходът във фокуса на литературата (Сборник с докладите от научната конференция „Литературата и преходът след 1989 г.“, проведена на 1–2 февруари 2024 г. в СУ „Св. Климент Охридски“)
The Transition at the Focus of Literature (Collection of Papers from the Academic Conference “Literature and the Post-1989 Transition”, held at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” on 1–2 February 2024)
Contributor(s): Ani Burova (Editor), Nikolay Papuchiev (Editor), Slaveya Dimitrova (Editor), Kristiyan Yanev (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, History, Anthropology, Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Media studies, Studies of Literature, Governance, Social history, Comparative Study of Literature, Bulgarian Literature, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Софийски университет »Св. Климент Охридски«
Keywords: Literature; Transition; Culture; Theatre; Cinema; Media; Newspapers; Bulgaria; Narratives
Summary/Abstract: The articles examine contemporary Bulgarian literature from two main perspectives. On the one hand, the processes that have taken place in literature over the last three decades are examined; on the other hand, the ways in which contemporary works reflect the time of transition after 1989 and the images of the historical period they create are analysed. The articles examine the processes both in socio-literary aspect and in the literary terms, tracing changes in poetics and thematic and genre trends. The articles in the collection also address broader interdisciplinary issues related to media, social and historical processes, cultural studies, theatre, and film.
- Print-ISBN-10: 978-954-07-61
- Page Count: 405
- Publication Year: 2025
- Language: Bulgarian
Преходът – петнайсет години по-късно в българския роман
Преходът – петнайсет години по-късно в българския роман
(The Transition in the Bulgarian Novel: Fifteen Years Latеr)
- Author(s):Milena Kirova
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:9-17
- No. of Pages:9
- Keywords:Transition; Bulgarian literature; novel; mythologeme
- Summary/Abstract:The Transition, which began in the early 1990s, had already ended by 2010, but in Bulgarian literature the novel went on using its plots and typical characters. This article briefly traces the Transition in terms of themes and imagery present in the Bulgarian novels of the first two decades of the 21st century. Taken all together, these observations make it possible to argue that despite their varied styles, genres and narrative devices, these novels conceptualize the social reality they present as a time of chaos and severe moral decline among the Bulgarian people. The second decade promoted a view of the Transition as no longer outside the individual but now inseparable from the intimate essence of the personality, a pattern that has disintegrated and then infused the fabric of psychic life. During the present decade, this tendency is undergoing a process of universalization and perpetuation: there is a shared feeling that the Transition has never come to an end and that the deficiencies of social life have solidified into general and permanent features of collective existence. The Transition has ceased to be a lived reality, at least in historical terms. Instead, it has become more than a reality, a mythologeme, an ur-event, a standard for social evil. By way of illustration, the paper analyzes five novels published within a single year – 2022, all of them typifying the trends pointed to above.
Преходът като роман за порастването
Преходът като роман за порастването
(The Transition as a Coming-of-Age Novel)
- Author(s):Ani Burova
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:18-33
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:coming-of-age novel; transition;, autofiction; autobiography; childhood and adolescence; memory
- Summary/Abstract:The article focuses on several Bulgarian novels published in the last decade in which the theme of the post-1989 transition is interpreted in relation to the plot of growing up, of maturation and the transition from childhood to adulthood. These are Anna and the Mountain by Nevena Mitropolitska, Made of Guilt by Joanna Elmi, Us Who Are Gone by Antonia Apostolova and Home for Beginners by Emanuil Vidinski. The article examines these works as representative of a specific trend in literary interpretations of the transition where the image of the 1990s is constructed out of the experience of childhood and childhood memory. In all four novels, the biographical experience is of central importance, as they are autofictional, autobiographical and lay emphasis on personal history. The paper highlights the specific poetic and narrative means characteristic of the abovementioned literary trend. The analysis leads to the conclusion that within its framework, the fictional portrayal of coming of age in the 1990s relies on a discernible set of stable narrative patterns. The image of the Transition itself as created in these works is similarly stable and homogeneous, dominated by the idea of the period as a time of chaos, misery, personal and social decay.
Носталгиите на прехода – повествователни версии
Носталгиите на прехода – повествователни версии
(The Nostalgias of the Transition: Narrative Versions)
- Author(s):Inna Peleva
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature, Sociology of Literature
- Page Range:34-82
- No. of Pages:49
- Keywords:contemporary Bulgarian literature; nostalgia for the People’s Republic of Bulgaria; nostalgia for the Kingdom of Bulgaria; nostalgia for rural life
- Summary/Abstract:The study examines nostalgia as a moderator of highly value-laden notions of the past and the present, where the factors playing a role in their formation include personal background, political beliefs, cultural competence, media images of reality, and dominant attitudes to the present in the communal consciousness. The discussion covers a variety of contemporary Bulgarian texts expressing one kind of nostalgia or another – for the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, for the Kingdom of Bulgaria, for rural life (or for classical artistic depictions of the Bulgarian patriarchal order). Special attention is paid to narratives of return in today’s Bulgarian literature. The key theses of the study are: 1. not only former State Security officers, former high-ranking party members or people ideologically tied to the left are nostalgic for the People’s Republic of Bulgaria; 2. narratives are capable of infecting with nostalgia for a given historical period generations that have no autobiographical experience of the era presented by the specific text; 3. today’s wave of “rural” texts is part of yet another conservative reaction to yet another modernization project underway in Bulgaria; 4. in any cultural paradigm, there is a co-presence of nostalgias that are differently motivated and that lament different “spaces” of the past (although according to the Dictionary of the Bulgarian Language, the word nostalgia is used only in the singular).
От „Когато ми отнеха името“ до „Керван за гарвани“ и „Лавандулово момче“: поетики на травмата и на паметта
От „Когато ми отнеха името“ до „Керван за гарвани“ и „Лавандулово момче“: поетики на травмата и на паметта
(From “When They Took Away My Name” to “A Caravan for Crows” and “The Lavender Boy”: Poetics of Trauma and Memory)
- Author(s):Marie Vrinat-Nikolov
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:83-93
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:Revival Process; The Great Excursion; memory; When They Took Away My Name; Caravan for Crows; The Lavender Boy
- Summary/Abstract:The Bulgarian literary space has a rich geo-history, which inscribes it as a place where different cultures and imaginaries – Ottoman and Muslim, Slavic and Christian – intertwine, as do different languages: in it have circulated texts written not only in Old Slavic, Church Slavonic and Bulgarian, but also in Hebrew, Ladino, Armenian, Arabic, Persian, Ottoman-Turkish, Turkish, Greek and others. This diversity and the resulting dynamics and tensions were suppressed with the establishment of the nation state in 1878 and during the various nationalist waves common to the other Balkan countries, whose aim was always to erase and even eradicate the Ottoman legacy. This pattern of obliteration culminated in the period 1985–1989, which was marked by the so-called “Revival Process” and “The Great Excursion” that led hundreds of thousands of Turks to flee to Turkey. The present paper examines how the literature written by Bulgarian-Turkish writers recreates those traumatic episodes, specifically in the collection When They Took Away My Name, published in 2015, which gives voice to the generation of trauma. It is also interesting to trace how Emine Sadka and Burhan Kerim, representatives of the next generation, inscribe the memory of these traumas in their novels Caravan for Crows and The Lavender Boy, published in 2022. Also how, in doing so, they return Bulgarian literature to its lost cultural and imaginary multiplicity.
„Кротките“ срещу „Поразените“. Народният съд и паметта на българския постсоциализъм
„Кротките“ срещу „Поразените“. Народният съд и паметта на българския постсоциализъм
(“The Meek” versus “The Defeated”: The People’s Court and the Memory of Bulgarian Post-socialism)
- Author(s):Jakub Mikulecký
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:94-107
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Angel Igov; The Meek; Teodora Dimova’s The Defeated; People’s Court; post-socialism; the memory of communism
- Summary/Abstract:The article deals with two fictional interpretations of the events related to the People’s Court in Bulgaria (1944–1945) – Angel Igov’s The Meek (2015) and Teodora Dimova’s The Defeated (2019). A parallel reading of these two historical novels allows a special emphasis on their fictional and discursive strategies. The paper also examines the way the two novels function in the context of post-socialist memory in Bulgaria. Do they contribute to a new understanding of the historical events of the (post)war period, and to what extent do they reflect the present and the contemporary ideological narratives?
Архивната революция, историографският обрат и перспективите пред изследванията на близкото минало днес
Архивната революция, историографският обрат и перспективите пред изследванията на близкото минало днес
(The Archival Revolution, the Historiographical Turn and the Prospects Today for the Studies of the Recent Past)
- Author(s):Michail Gruev
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):History, Social history, Recent History (1900 till today), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
- Page Range:108-115
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:archival revolution; history; memory; past; reflection; methodology of history
- Summary/Abstract:The text examines the disintegration of the unified historical narrative of the recent past which happened after the fall of the communist regime in Bulgaria. Traced against this background are the dimensions of the so-called archival revolution in the system of the Bulgarian archives and the fate of the document arrays of the former regime. Given the gigantic increase in the volumes of documents with which historians operate, the paper finally attempts to take stock of its impact on the research field and on public discourse.
Соцносталгията и краят на прехода
Соцносталгията и краят на прехода
(Socialist Nostalgia and the End of the Transition)
- Author(s):Daniela Koleva
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):History, Anthropology, Recent History (1900 till today), Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure , Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
- Page Range:116-130
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:nostalgia; transition; biographical memory; popular culture
- Summary/Abstract:The paper examines post-socialist nostalgia as a feature of the biographical memory of people whose active life coincided with the period of the communist regime, and as an aspect of the popular culture of post-communist countries over the past two decades. The main argument is that nostalgia is a natural reaction to rapid and radical changes in society. The key to its understanding is in the present, rather than in the past. Assembling an idealized picture of the past from selected fragments, nostalgists express dissatisfaction with the present. This is the cultural-critical potential of nostalgia. As an element of popular culture, nostalgia is a playful, eclectic and superficial, sometimes ironic representation of the past, one often used as a marketing strategy. Whether critical or commodified, nostalgia is a way of integrating the past into the present when that past no longer poses a threat. In this sense, the emergence of pop-cultural nostalgia marks the end of post-communist transition.
Голямата промяна в литературата: деинституционализация или плурализиране на полето?
Голямата промяна в литературата: деинституционализация или плурализиране на полето?
(The Big Transformation in Literature: Deinstitutionalization or Pluralization of the Field?)
- Author(s):Mihail Nedelchev
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature, Sociology of Literature
- Page Range:131-138
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:status; institution; monopoly; literature; ideological compromise; professional career; doctrine; socialist realism; April Generation; samizdat, tamizdat; graphomaniac; book distribution; university
- Summary/Abstract:This text outlines the situation in Bulgarian literary culture before and after the great breakthrough of November 10, 1989, namely, in the four decades surrounding this event. It offers in a summary form the story of the transformation of the Union of Bulgarian Writers into a totalitarian institution which enforced a unique monopoly over all literary creativity and the dissemination and meaning of literature. The paper lays out the great socio-cultural narrative of the chaotic, yet inevitably legitimate process of “deinstitutionalization” after the withdrawal of the state from its “tutelage,” of the “splitting” of literature into two “literatures” that do not read each other.
Времеубежище на грознохубавите. От поетическата деконструкция към романовите постконструкции
Времеубежище на грознохубавите. От поетическата деконструкция към романовите постконструкции
(Time Shelter for the Uglybeautiful: From Poetic Deconstruction to Fictional Post-constructions)
- Author(s):Mitko Novkov
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:139-161
- No. of Pages:23
- Keywords:poetry of the 1990s; novels; postmodernism; construction and deconstruction
- Summary/Abstract:The essay hypothesizes that the wave of fictional works published in the first quarter of the 21st century is due in large part to the reversal of literary language that took place in the 1990s. On this basis, a number of comparisons and contrasts are made between novels and poetry collections. The main focus is on the artistic styles of five poets: Ani Ilkov, Kiril Merdzhanski, Miglena Nikolchina, Plamen Doynov and Georgi Gospodinov. Also described are novels by Milen Ruskov and Nedyalko Slavov, by Yanitsa Radeva, Emilia Dvoryanova and Maria Laleva, by Emine Sadki, Georgi Gospodinov, Burhan Kerim and Ioanna Elmi. In all of them one finds echoes of the poetry of the 1990s.
Преходът и литературноисторическият сюжет на българския постмодернизъм
Преходът и литературноисторическият сюжет на българския постмодернизъм
(The Transition and the Literary-Historical Narrative of Bulgarian Postmodernism)
- Author(s):Plamen Antov
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:162-183
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:postmodernism; the “Bulgarian”; Transition; end of history; 1990s; mass culture
- Summary/Abstract:The article offers a systematic exposition of the development of postmodernism in Bulgarian literature and specifically in poetry. Postmodernism is treated as a literary-historical period synchronous with the years of the Transition, while at the same time functioning as the representative discourse that articulates it in an adequate manner. Two broad periods are distinguished in this paired development, with the year 2000 being the borderline between them. Special attention is paid to a central “language” narrative in this development: postmodern poetry is seen as a deconstruction of ideological meta-narratives endowed with symbolic power, including within the institution of literature itself.
Консервативните атаки срещу българската литература през 90-те
Консервативните атаки срещу българската литература
през 90-те
(Conservative Attacks on Bulgarian Literature in the 1990s)
- Author(s):Moris Fadel
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:184-187
- No. of Pages:4
- Keywords:nationalism; nostalgia; anti-Westernism; modernity
- Summary/Abstract:The article explores the situation in Bulgarian literature in the early 1990s, a time which saw a radical transformation of the literary space. Writers attempted to be in sync with what was happening in Western Europe and USA. At the same time, however, they became subjected to devastating criticism from emerging post-communist nationalism and anti-Western sentiments. The attacks against them were primarily political. From an aesthetic point of view, they were mostly concentrated in a nostalgia for the “timeless” canon of Bulgarian literature. At the end of the article, a link is made to present-day conservative anti-Western propaganda in Eastern Europe.
Биография на обществото. Доколко политическото може да обясни личното
Биография на обществото. Доколко политическото може да обясни личното
(Biography of the Society: To What Extent Can the Political Explain the Personal)
- Author(s):Antoaneta Alipieva
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:188-198
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:political poetry; social and geopolitical events; authentic facts of the day
- Summary/Abstract:The article offers a perspective on the genre of “political poetry,” represented in the Bulgarian period of the Transition by the poets Plamen Doinov and Yordan Eftimov. It seeks to find analogies with previous models and authors, at the same time reviewing the nature of political poetry. The paper also examines the reasons why over the last thirty years the concept of “the political” has taken shape as a leading category in Bulgarian literature.
Поетика на тялото и властта в романите от 90-те години на ХХ век („Германия – мръсна приказка“ и „Японецът и потокът“)
Поетика на тялото и властта в романите от 90-те години на ХХ век („Германия – мръсна приказка“ и „Японецът и потокът“)
(Poetics of the Body and Power in the Early 1990s Novels (“Germany – a Dirty Tale” and “The Japanese and The Flow”))
- Author(s):Ilvie Konedareva
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:199-212
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Bulgarian novels of the 1990s; theme of the body; power and eroticism in the novel
- Summary/Abstract:Subject of the present paper is the issue of the body in the early 1990s novels. The problematic itself is multi-directional and is closely related to themes such as power, morality and eroticism. The paper examines the efforts within the Bulgarian literary field to construct a language apparatus, a model for articulating the body and corporeality in the prose and poetry after 1989. In the area of fiction, this led to the construction of specific styles and the emergence of specific trends. The article shows how in its public presence, literature strove to gain experience in writing and thinking about the body and corporeality, resulting in works nurtured by the new age.
Преход и периферия в „Ломски разкази“ на Емил Андреев и „Пернишки разкази“ на Здравка Евтимова
Преход и периферия в „Ломски разкази“ на Емил Андреев и „Пернишки разкази“ на Здравка Евтимова
(Transition and Periphery in “Lom Stories” by Emil Andreev and “Pernik Stories” by Zdravka Evtimova)
- Author(s):Kristiyan Yanev
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:213-225
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:transition; periphery; regional literature; Emil Andreev; Zdravka Evtimova
- Summary/Abstract:The text compares the depiction of the geographical periphery and the countryside after 1989 in two contemporary collections of short stories – Emil Andreev’s Lom Stories and Zdravka Evtimova’s Pernik Stories, where the interest in the regional is set in the context of the so-called ‘spatial turn’ in the humanities. The article examines how and to what extent the image of the Transition is present in the shorter narrative forms. It also explores the mechanisms of representation in the two volumes – allegorical and characteristic of the postmodern experiments of the 1990s in Emil Andreev’s, realistic in Zdravka Evtimova’s. The text argues that in Lom Stories (1996) the regional functions as a mythologized space rather than a topographical reality, while in Zdravka Evtimova’s Pernik Stories (2012) the provincial is represented through its social marginality and peripherality.
Постпаметта за прехода в „Направени от вина“ на Йоанна Елми
Постпаметта за прехода в „Направени от вина“ на Йоанна Елми
(Post-memory of the Transition in Yoanna Elmi’s “Made
of Guilt”)
- Author(s):Magdalena Pytlak
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:226-235
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:trauma; transition; memory; post-memory; Bulgarian literature; Yoanna Elmi
- Summary/Abstract:This paper examines Yoanna Elmi’s novel Made of Guilt (2021) as an example of post-memory of the early stage of the Transition. The analysis uses the concept of post-memory created by Marianne Hirsch, while also applying the ideas of the Polish sociologist Piotr Szompka on the “trauma of great change.” The focus of the paper falls on the narrative structure of the novel and demonstrates that despite its different time frames, narrative shifts and fragmentation, Made of Guilt remains a story that can be treated as an account of the experience of personal (and to a large extent generational) self-identification.
Романите на Младен Младенов и Руси Чанев „Битак. Роман-касета“ и „Бардак. Роман-репортаж“ като сбор от акустични картини на прехода
Романите на Младен Младенов и Руси Чанев „Битак.
Роман-касета“ и „Бардак. Роман-репортаж“ като сбор от акустични картини на прехода
(The Novels of Mladen Mladenov and Rusi Chanev “Bitak [Flea-market]. A Novel-Cassete” and “Bardak [Brothel]. A Novel-reportage” as a Collection of Acoustic Images of the Transition)
- Author(s):Boris Minkov
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:236-248
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:linguistic carnival; oral speech; fragmented narration; City of Truth; prominence
- Summary/Abstract:Bitak [Flea-market] and Bardak [Brothel] are works that are hard to place in the literary history of the 1990s. Written by actors, they were received with some derision by the writing community. Published in 1997, during the deepest economic and political crisis of the Transition, they could hardly count on any noteworthy reception beyond the level of popular culture, but neither did they have access to a wider reading audience. Despite their acute reception deficit, however, these works represent two of the most radical artistic gestures in recent Bulgarian literature. Like the experiments of Karl Kraus in The Last Days of Mankind, the authors seem to have placed, as it were, microphones in front of random characters for whom life during the Transition means a collective presence on the street: angry, mocking, carnivalesque, unstoppable, excessive. The effect is of a narrative made up by the suddenly liberated spoken word, whose outpouring into the public sphere creates the images and myths of history.
Подриването на литературните йерархии
Подриването на литературните йерархии
(Challenging Literary Hierarchies)
- Author(s):Nikolay Aretov
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Customs / Folklore, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:249-262
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:stratification; popular literature; unofficial folklore
- Summary/Abstract:The article offers some clarification of the stratification of literature, specifically addressing the popular genres, journalism, “unofficial” folklore, and non-literature (paraliterature). The observations are focused on phenomena dating from the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. At the same time, the proposed approach expands the chronological scope and tries to problematize and update the imposed stratification of literature, taking into account the differentiation of the readership and its preferences. Several phenomena are highlighted, with the emphasis being placed on song genres and especially on the phenomenon of Angel Angelov Dzhendema (“the Hell”).
„Де го тоя арменски поп“. Вестник „Стършел“ – смях по време на преход
„Де го тоя арменски поп“. Вестник „Стършел“ – смях по време на преход
(There is No One to Turn To: the “Sturshel” (“Hornet”) Newspaper and Amusement in a Time of Transition)
- Author(s):Albena Vacheva, Nikolay Papuchiev
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Media studies, Communication studies, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:263-279
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:Sturshel; laughter; transition; mass and popular culture; nostalgia
- Summary/Abstract:The article presents the results of a study of one of the longest-lasting humorous newspapers in Bulgaria – Sturshel [Hornet]. It examines and performs a content analysis of the issues published between 1989 and 2000. The focus is on how the publication functioned in the context of Bulgaria’s liberated media and information market and what role it played in changing public language during the decade under review. The analysis shows that in terms of language, the newspaper applied standards that are much more conservative when compared to the news dailies which were rapidly transforming themselves into tabloids. Its pages allow phrases from the “political language” of the street – expressions used in banners or in chants during rallies, strikes and protests. This kind of language use leads to the destruction of the old ideologies and norms of public speech formed out of dogmatic clichés.However, the newspaper does not allow vulgarisms and insults that demean the personality or the religious and ethnic affiliation of the objects of its humour and satirical representation. By keeping to this kind of language use, the newspaper achieves its intended humorous effects through a satire on social ills and a postmodern ironic critique of the emerging nostalgia for the totalitarian regime.
Транспониране на медийни формати в литературното поле
Транспониране на медийни формати в литературното
поле
(Transposition of Media Formats into the Literary Field)
- Author(s):Totka Monova
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Media studies, Studies of Literature, Communication studies, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:280-293
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:media and literary field; format; stereotype; genre; transmedia textual forms
- Summary/Abstract:The text focuses on the specific transposition of stable media formats and stereotypes into literary forms. The empirical material includes 150 texts with an average length of about 200 pages each, labelled by the authors themselves as novels.The tabloid format is seen as a specific trend of corporate journalism. The conclusions and generalizations in the paper are based on novels that depict key moments of the Bulgarian Transition, namely its criminalization, the birth of the mafia and power groups, the trafficking of weapons, people, drugs, as well as the transformation of the media into corporate structures. The examined texts illustrate the direct transposition of stereotypes initially formed in the domain of the media. This means that the narratives on which the plots of the novels are built have already happened as a text and are known to a mass audience eager to find in these novels the continuation of the story already familiar from the media texts. Moreover, loudly advertised on social networks, blogs, personal websites, podcasts, thesenovels promise to reveal to the public the hidden story, one that the media for one reason or another have chosen to omit.
Медийно презентиране на произведенията, отразяващи темата за прехода в предаванията „Библиотеката“, Култура.бг“ и „Панорама“ по БНТ 1
Медийно презентиране на произведенията, отразяващи темата за прехода в предаванията „Библиотеката“, Култура.бг“ и „Панорама“
по БНТ 1
(Media Presentation of Literary Works on the Topic of the Transition in the TV Programs “Bibiliotekata” (“The Library”), “Culture.bg” and “Panorama” shown on Bulgarian National Television)
- Author(s):Irina Todorova
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Social Sciences, Media studies, Communication studies
- Page Range:294-307
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:transition; novel; TV program; “Bibliotekata” (“The Library”); “Kultura.BG” (“Culture. BG”); “Panorama”
- Summary/Abstract:The paper focuses on the presentation of literary works on the topic of the Transition in the TV programs “Bibliotekata,” “Kultura.BG” and “Panorama” on the BNT 1 Channel. The interpretations of works reflecting the Transition can be classified as direct/indirect or metaphorical. Sometimes the given novel/literary work is not seen as related to the Transition, with the writers themselves interpreting the social change in different ways. The main conclusion is that the authors prefer to distance themselves from the topic of the Transition, even when it is present in their books. The possible reasons for this are many. One is that the journalists themselves fail to ask writers this specific question. It has been observed that in most cases the focus is on the work as a whole, while the Transition itself is not commented on. Also, what is emphasized is the author’s output in its entirety and diversity. Yet, the interpretation of the Transition through literary works is important because it is a factor in the formation of cultural memory.
Среща между автор, читател и произведение в контекста на читателските рецепции и дигиталната трансформация
Среща между автор, читател и произведение в контекста на читателските рецепции и дигиталната трансформация
(The Encounter between Author, Reader and the Literary Work in the Context of Reader Receptions and Digital Transformations)
- Author(s):Dena Popova
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
- Page Range:308-317
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:reflexive communication; reader reception; memory reconstruction; shared online forums; memory and fiction
- Summary/Abstract:The paper explores how the new media environment and digital transformations affect reader reception and specifically the dynamics between author, reader, and literary work. The three reference points of the analysis are reflexive communication, Wolfgang Iser’s reception theory and the role of fiction as an agent for reconstructing the memory of the recent past. The analysis is based on the works of three key authors of Bulgaria’s period of the Transition – Alek Popov, Deyan Enev, and Teodora Dimova.
Десетилетието на промените в театъра: разриви и начала
Десетилетието на промените в театъра: разриви
и начала
(The Decade of Changes in the Theater: Breaks and Beginnings)
- Author(s):Violeta Decheva
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts
- Page Range:318-331
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:theater; communist system; aesthetics; dramaturgy; 1990s
- Summary/Abstract:The 1990s saw processes in the theater whose genealogy dates back to the years before 1989. As a result, the deconstruction of the communist system allowed the unleashing of a dynamic that on the one hand led to serious ruptures, but on the other hand transformed existing practices and experiences, both aesthetic and institutional ones. Simultaneous with this was the generation of new processes. In theatrical practice and dramaturgy, new aesthetics, themes, and styles took shape. It is these complex processes, unlocked in the 1990s, that are the subject of the article. The proposed analysis is motivated by the conviction that they form the basis of what has been happening in the theater in Bulgaria over the last 10 years and more, and therefore understanding them is of increasingly growing importance.
Интерпретации на прехода след 1989 година в драмата и представлението в България
Интерпретации на прехода след 1989 година в драмата и представлението в България
(Interpretations of the Post-1989 Transition in Drama and Performance in Bulgaria)
- Author(s):Kamelia Nikolova
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts
- Page Range:332-347
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:interpretations of the Transition; Bulgarian theatre of the Transition; Bulgarian drama of the Transition; new Bulgarian drama; independent stage; devised drama
- Summary/Abstract:The paper examines the ways drama, performance and theatre as a whole reflect the political transition in Bulgaria – the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the removal from power of Todor Zhivkov at the end of 1989 and Bulgaria’s admission to the European Union in 2007. The focus of the text is on how playwriting and theatre practice experienced and interpreted this key socio-cultural turn both while it was taking place and in the years after. For this purpose, a comparative presentation of theatre and drama in the two periods of Bulgaria’s recent history (1989-2007 and from 2007 until today) has been carried out. Subject to the analysis are, on the one hand, the main interpretations of the Transition in the changing institutional and aesthetic profile of the theatre and in the works of the stage directors Ivan Stanev, Vaskressia Viharova, Tedi Moskov, Galin Stoev and Javor Gardev, and on the other hand, in the plays of authors established before 1989 but continuing to write after that, such as Stanislav Stratiev, Konstantin Iliev, Stephan Tsanev, Margarit Minkov, Tsvetan Marangozov, as well as in the dramatic texts of the subsequent and the latest generation of playwrights who emerged after the change – Teodora Dimova, Georgi Tenev, Kamen Donev, Yuri Dachev, Elin Rahnev, Plamen Doynov, Yana Borissova, Georgi Gospodinov, Elena Alexieva, Yasen Vassilev, Miroslav Hristov, Ivan Dimitrov, Stephan Ivanov.
Образи на прехода в българското посттоталитарно документално кино
Образи на прехода в българското посттоталитарно документално кино
(Images of the Transition in Bulgarian Post-totalitarian Documentary Cinema)
- Author(s):Teodora Stoilova-Doncheva
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:348-360
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:documentary cinema; the Transition; images; models; problems; names
- Summary/Abstract:The political, economic and cultural changes after 1989 had an extremely great influence on the art of the cinema in our country. They dramatically changed the content of the films and the financing organizations; furthermore, even the ranks of the people who were making cinema expanded. But the first thing Bulgarian filmmakers had to face was a new model of film production which they had to adopt so as to continue making movies. Thus, at the very beginning of the Transition, this process was under the threat of being interrupted. In preserving Bulgarian cinema after 1989, it was documentary cinema that played the key role. The present paper therefore focuses on the subject matter and the topics most often analyzed by Bulgarian documentary cinema after 1989 and the problems that film production has had to face. It covers the most significant trends from 1989 until today and concludes with an attempt to outline the most significant images of the Transition in Bulgarian post-totalitarian documentary cinema.
Преходът в прозата на Дубравка Угрешич, Светлана Алексиевич и Руксандра Чесеряну
Преходът в прозата на Дубравка Угрешич, Светлана Алексиевич и Руксандра Чесеряну
(The Transition in the Works of Dubravka Ugrešić, Svetlana Aleksievich and Ruxandra Cesereanu)
- Author(s):Liudmila Mindova
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Comparative Study of Literature, Croatian Literature, Romanian Literature, Russian Literature
- Page Range:361-369
- No. of Pages:9
- Keywords:post-communism; transition; post-Yugoslav; Balkan and post-totalitarian literatures
- Summary/Abstract:The paper examines post-Yugoslav, post-Soviet and Romanian literary images of the Transition through the prose and essays of Dubravka Ugrešić, Svetlana Aleksievich and Ruxandra Cesereanu. The analysis focuses on Ugrešić’s novel The Museum of Unconditional Surrender (1997), Secondhand Time. The Last of the Soviets (2013) by Alexievich and the novel Angelus (2010) by the Romanian writer Ruxandra Cesereanu. The Croatian Ugrešić and the Belarusian Aleksievich are the same age. The Romanian Cesereanu is a representative of the next generation, but she has also attracted attention with her theoretical and historical research on political repression and labor camps in communist Romania. In the works of all three writers, catastrophic and apocalyptic events and images predominate, while also including angel images in an original way.
„Преди“ и „след“ през погледа на източноевропейския интелектуалец-политик (Вацлав Хавел, Желю Желев, Блага Димитрова и Адам Михник)
„Преди“ и „след“ през погледа на източноевропейския интелектуалец-политик (Вацлав Хавел, Желю Желев, Блага Димитрова и Адам Михник)
(1989: “Before” and “After” through the Eyes of the Eastern European Intellectual-Politican (Václav Havel, Zhelyu Zhelev, Blaga Dimitrova and Adam Michnik))
- Author(s):Slaveya Dimitrova
- Language:Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Political Theory, Civil Society, Governance, Politics and society
- Page Range:370-387
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:1989; intellectual; ethics; politics; post-communist societies
- Summary/Abstract:The analysis in the present study starts from the observation that after the great change in 1989, a number of prominent dissident intellectuals became actively involved in political life. The text focuses on the first decade after the democratic changes in Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Subject of the analysis are essays, interviews and public speeches by several iconic figures of “engaged intellectuals” – Václav Havel, Zhelyu Zhelev, Blaga Dimitrova and Adam Michnik. The paper examines their assessments of the recent past, of communism and totalitarianism. It traces the dynamics of their views on the role of the intellectual in politics, on intellectual and political ethics, on freedom and the challenges of the present times, on the dangers and risks for democracy.
За авторите
За авторите
(About the authors)
- Author(s):Author Not Specified
- Language:English, Bulgarian
- Subject(s):Bibliography, General Reference Works
- Page Range:389-405
- No. of Pages:18
